🔗 Share this article Can You Solve It? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation Which Shaped the Modern World There are many candidates for the title of “world’s most significant invention.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. According to a recent publication, however, that honor should go to a automated timber mill invented through Dutch inventor Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before mechanised sawing, constructing a simple trading ship required approximately ten sawyers laboring for 90 days,” writes the author. “With wind-powered sawmills, an identical quantity of processed timber could be produced within seven days.” Thanks to this speedy automated cutter, that turned logs into planks with virtually no human effort, Dutch builders were able to construct ships more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Dutch maritime, financial and cultural supremacy across the continent and the world. The First Genuine Industrial Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, argues the writer, was “mankind’s first true industrial apparatus.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. A single part converted its rotary motion to vertical motion for the saw. Another component transformed that same spinning motion into a sideway’s motion feeding the timber toward the blade. A geared mechanism shifted the log ahead a measured step each stroke. “Every component seemed simple by itself. The Dutchman’s brilliance was to integrate them so the machine operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, sawing with each downward stroke and advancing on every return stroke. This constituted a remarkably clever use of fundamental components.” Which brings us to the current challenge. I’d like you to reimagine one of the fundamental ideas underpinning this historic machine. Round and Up Construct a machine that turns circular motion to up-and-down motion. Your available these components exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pins. Two bars. A “guide”, that is a tube or housing through which a single the bars can slide perfectly. (Consider that it is possible to put things on a stand, so the components do not fall down.) I’ll be back at 5pm UK with the solution. Meanwhile, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the planet’s greatest invention.